South Africa court suspends Shell seismic survey plan

France24 – AFP, 28 December 2021

The ruling is a temporary victory for green groups who said seismic exploration
would harm whales, seals and other fragile species RODGER BOSCH AFP

Johannesburg (AFP) – A South African court on Tuesday blocked Shell from using seismic waves to explore for oil and gas in the Indian Ocean, in a victory for environmentalists worried about the impact on whales and other species. 

Backing a suit filed by conservationists, the High Court in the Eastern Cape town of Makhanda ruled that Shell was "hereby interdicted from undertaking seismic survey operations." 

The fossil fuel giant had announced plans to start exploration over more than 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 square miles) of ocean off South Africa's Wild Coast region. 

The Wild Coast is a 300-kilometre (185-mile) stretch of natural beauty, dotted with marine and nature reserves. 

The area of interest lies 20 kilometres (12 miles) off the coast, in waters 700 to 3,000 meters deep (2,300 to 10,000 feet). 

Shell's scheme entails using seismic shockwaves which bounce off the sea bed, and whose signature can point to potentially energy-bearing sites. 

"Many sea creatures will be affected, from whales, dolphins, seals, penguins to tiny plankton that will be blasted," said Janet Solomon, of the environmental group Oceans Not Oil in the runup to the hearing. 

Exploration had been scheduled to start on December 1 and last up to five months. 

A Shell spokesperson said Tuesday: "We respect the court's decision and have paused the survey while we review the judgement. 

'Huge victory'

"Surveys of this nature have been conducted for over 50 years with more than 15 years of extensive peer-reviewed scientific research." 

The campaigners were jubilant at the ruling, but stressed that the relief was only temporary. 

"It's a huge victory," said Katherine Robinson of the NGO Natural Justice. 

"But the struggle is not over -- this decision is just the interdict. We understand that the proceedings will continue." 

A petition against the project had gathered nearly 85,000 signatures. 

Campaigners said the scheme would entail "one extremely loud shock wave every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, for five months at a time." 

Shell argued that it took "great care to prevent or minimise" the impact on wildlife, and promised that the work would strictly follow the guidelines of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, a UK government adviser on nature conservation. 

On Tuesday, it also stressed what it described as the benefits for South Africa if oil and gas were found. 

"South Africa is highly reliant on energy imports for many of its energy needs," the company's spokesperson said. 

"If viable resources were to be found offshore, this could significantly contribute to the country’s energy security and the government’s economic development programmes." 

South Africa's energy ministry had backed the scheme, and lashed those who opposed it as thwarting investment in the country's development. 

The High Court's ruling comes after a lower court rejected the conservationists' suit in early December. 

Several fishermen and local groups were also part of the petition.

Belgian 'regret' for Congo past stirs bittersweet response

Yahoo – AFP, June 30, 2020

King Leopold II pillaged DR Congo and treated the colony as his personal
property (AFP Photo/SAMIR TOUNSI)

Kinshasa (AFP) - DR Congo hailed Belgium on Tuesday after its monarch, King Philippe, voiced his "deepest regrets" for the country's brutal colonial occupation, but some in the country demanded reparations for the past.

In a letter to President Felix Tshisekedi on the nation's 60th anniversary of independence, Philippe expressed unprecedented sorrow for colonial acts that historians say led to the death of millions of Congolese.

"I want to express my deepest regrets for these wounds of the past whose pain is reawakened today by the discrimination still present in our societies," Philippe said.

"Acts of violence and cruelty were committed which weigh on our collective memory," he said.

DR Congo Foreign Minister Marie Ntumba Nzeza, in statement to AFP, said the king's letter was "balm to the heart of the Congolese people. This is a step forward that will boost friendly relations between our nations."

Tshisekedi, in a TV address on the eve of the anniversary, paid tribute to Belgium, where he lived in self-imposed exile before returning to run successfully in the 2018 elections.

Philippe, he said, "is searching, just like me, to strengthen the ties between our two countries, without denying our common past, but with the goal of preparing a bright and harmonious future."

In contrast, Lambert Mende, the former spokesman of Tshisekedi's predecessor, Joseph Kabila, said, "It's not enough to say, 'I feel regret.'

"People should be willing to repair the damage in terms of investment and compensation with interest. That's what we expect from our Belgian partners."

Herve Diakiese, spokesman of a citizen's movement called Congolais Debout (Congolese, Stand Up), said the monarch's letter was "a step in the right direction."

"But this belated remorse can only be accepted after adequate reparations for these atrocities which enabled the personal enrichment of Leopold II and his friends," he said, referring to the former Belgian monarch who pillaged Congo from 1885 to 1908.

"Belgium's mischief-making after independence on June 30 1960 to control the DRC's minerals should also feature among reparation issues," he said.

Looted Congolese artefacts, too, should be returned, he added.

Jean-Claude Katende, the president of Asadho, one of the oldest rights groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, called for a greater effort to identify provinces where colonial Belgium carried out its worst atrocities.

"In Equateur (province), people were killed and others had their hands cut off," he said.

Belgium is contemplating setting up a parliamentary commission to investigate its colonial rule, which also extended over Rwanda and Burundi.

Oil prices, virus, instability put Algeria on edge

Yahoo – AFP, Amal Belalloufi with Philippe Agret in Tunis, April 12, 2020

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman chairs a virtual meeting
of G20 oil ministers in Riyadh (AFP Photo)

Algiers (AFP) - Algeria faces economic and social turmoil if crude prices continue to collapse, experts have warned, with the oil-dependent country reeling from a year of popular protests, political turmoil and now, coronavirus.

The North African country is an example of how hydrocarbon economies are likely to face unrest if oil prices remain at near two-decade lows due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a price war between key players Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Top oil-producing countries agreed Sunday to slash output by nearly 10 million barrels per day from May 1 to boost prices, Kuwait's Oil Minister Khaled al-Fadhel wrote on Twitter.

But as Algerian oil expert Nazim Zouioueche told official news agency APS, any impact will likely be temporary due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving Algeria's economy exposed.

The price collapse has destroyed Algeria's revenue projections, with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune acknowledging the "vulnerability" of the country's oil-dependent economy.

It is "imperative to put an end to bad practices instilled over a period of financial well-being, such as waste and a spirit of laziness and overconsumption", Tebboune has said.

His words might be too little, too late, as the drop in prices, the coronavirus and ongoing political uncertainty create a perfect financial and social storm.

'Financial abyss'

Algeria "is on the edge of a financial abyss", according to Luis Martinez, North Africa specialist at France's Sciences Po University.

The government decided to slash public spending in March, after oil prices dipped to $22.50.

The country's 2020 budget had been based on an oil price of $50 per barrel, with growth of around 1.8 percent.

Algiers has already announced a 30 percent cut to the state budget, without touching civil servants' wages, as well as cutting its enormous imports bill.

State oil giant Sonatrach is to halve operating and capital expenditure, from $14 billion to $7 billion, in order to preserve foreign currency reserves.

But former Sonatrach CEO Abdelmadjid Attar said in principle, the company "shouldn't have to reduce hydrocarbon production" as the cuts would affect other operations.

Meanwhile, Algeria's foreign reserves dropped to under $60 billion at the end of March, compared to almost $80 billion at the end of 2018 and over $97 billion at the end of 2017.

Some economists are concerned those could quickly run out.

Economist Ahmed Dahmani warns of multiple dangers: a rapid draining of foreign exchange reserves, a worsening budget deficit and balance of payments, a sharp devaluation of the dinar and an inflationary surge, leading to economic recession and mass unemployment.

Bureaucracy, corruption

"The government has no choice but to broaden the tax base, to resort to public debt and negotiate loans," Martinez said. "With the remaining foreign reserves, that should allow it to hold on until 2021. But after that?"

Others worry that Algeria will struggle to diversify its economy away from oil and attract investors.

Economics expert Aderrahmane Mebtoul expressed doubt the country could recover capital that has already left, and said Algeria's "bureaucracy, fossilised financial system and corruption" would keep foreign direct investment away.

With the coronavirus disrupting economies worldwide, the pandemic could provide a scapegoat for the government.

"The Algerian authorities could in fact argue that the economic and financial situation is no better" elsewhere, Martinez said.

But in Algeria, the pandemic follows a protracted political crisis.

The "Hirak" citizens movement that began in February 2019 brought down longtime autocrat Abdelaziz Bouteflika a year ago.

Only the pandemic was able to halt -- perhaps temporarily -- massive weekly anti-government protests.

And a continued collapse in oil prices could prove to be the final straw for a country on the edge.

"It's not the year 2020 that's on trial, but the 20 years of patronage, nepotism and corruption" of Bouteflika's reign, Martinez said.

Former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi dead at 95

Yahoo – AFP, Nicolas DELAUNAY, February 4, 2020

Former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi, seen here in 1998, has died
(AFP Photo/ALEXANDER JOE)

Nairobi (AFP) - Former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1978 and 2002, has died aged 95, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced Tuesday.

Moi's 24-year rule saw his country become a one-party state where critical voices were crushed, corruption became endemic and tribal divisions were stoked and turned bloody.

"It is with profound sadness that I announce the death of a great man of an African state," Kenyatta said in a statement.

He ordered a period of national mourning until a state funeral is held, on a date not yet announced.

The former president died "in the early morning of February 4 at Nairobi hospital in the presence of his family," Kenyatta said.

'Chequered career'

Moi fought off rivals in a bitter contest to take the top job in 1978, succeeding Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, when he died.

The speaker of Kenya's national assembly, Justin Muturi said that Moi was an "astute politician", who "employed pragmatic nationalism to keep the country together for the 24 years that he led our nation."

"He will be remembered for his great efforts towards consolidating peace and tranquility within the Horn of Africa and largely the East African Region, at a very difficult time for the region and the African continent," Muturi added.

His son Gideon Moi, a senator, confirmed Moi died at 5:20 am (02:20 GMT). "He passed away peacefully," he said. "I was by his side and, as a family, we have accepted (his death)."

One of the defining scandals of Moi's presidency was the loss of $1 billion from the central bank through false gold and diamond exports.

A report by Britain-based risk consultant group Kroll in 2007 claimed Moi's family and clique laundered money on a global scale, buying properties and companies in London, New York and South Africa and even a 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) ranch in Australia.

'Discipline'

Vice-President William Ruto, who comes from the same Kalenjin people as Moi, mourned his "legendary personal discipline" and said that his "life and work touched every one of us in lasting, impactful ways."

Those targeted by his regime included human rights and environmental activists, including the writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o and the future Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

Moi was however praised for keeping Kenya a relative haven of peace during a chaotic period in east Africa which saw the genocide in Rwanda and civil wars in Burundi and Somalia.

His later return -- under significant pressure -- to multiparty elections in 1992, and peaceful handover of power to opposition leader Mwai Kibaki in 2002 also won him some praise.

Former opponent Raila Odinga, who spent several years in jail under Moi, referred to the late leader's "chequered career", but also spoke of his decision to finally restore multiparty politics.

"Moi and I reconciled after the political differences of the 1980s and early 90s, and we were able to work together to bring more reforms to the country," Odinga said.

In recent years observers have criticised the "rehabilitation" of Moi as the elderly former president often received visits from President Kenyatta, his opposition rival Raila Odinga and any politician seeking his blessing ahead of elections.

Kenyatta revived "Moi Day" in honour of the former president in 2017, after it was scrapped in 2010.

Angola vows to bring back billionaire dos Santos over graft claims

Yahoo – AFP, in London, January 20, 2020

A trove of leaked documents allege that Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daught
of Angola's ex-president, amassed her wealth by plundering state funds (AFP Photo/
FERNANDO VELUDO)

Luanda (AFP) - Angolan prosecutors vowed on Monday to use "all possible" means to bring back Isabel dos Santos, the former president's billionaire daughter, after thousands of leaked documents revealed new allegations she siphoned off hundreds of millions in public money.

Dubbed Africa's richest woman, dos Santos is accused of using her father's backing to plunder state funds from the oil-rich but impoverished southern African country and -- with the help of Western consulting firms -- move the money offshore.

She stopped living in Angola after her authoritarian father Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country for nearly 40 years, stepped down in 2017 for his anointed successor Joao Lourenco.

She now spends her time between London and Dubai.

"We will use all possible means and activate international mechanisms to bring Isabel dos Santos back to the country," prosecutor general Helder Pitra Gros told public radio.

"We have asked for international support from Portugal, Dubai and other countries," he added.

The 46-year-old dos Santos is already being investigated as part of an anti-graft campaign launched by Lourenco, who has vowed to root out corruption.

Prosecutors last month froze bank accounts and holdings owned by the businesswoman and her Congolese-Danish husband Sindika Dokolo, a move dos Santos described as motivated by a groundless political vendetta.

Gros' remarks came after a trove of 715,000 files dubbed the "Luanda Leaks" on Sunday revealed how the eldest daughter of the former president allegedly moved the vast sums into overseas assets.

The award-winning New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) behind the release alleged the international system has allowed powerful individuals like her to move assets around the world, without questions.

Prosecutors have already frozen the bank accounts and holdings owned by dos 

Santos and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo (AFP Photo/FERNANDO VELUDO)

"Based on a trove of more than 715,000 files, our investigation highlights a broken international regulatory system that allows professional services firms to serve the powerful with almost no questions asked," the ICIJ wrote.

The group said its team of 120 reporters in 20 countries was able to trace "how an army of Western financial firms, lawyers, accountants, government officials and management companies helped (dos Santos and Dokolo) hide assets from tax authorities".

'Highly coordinated attack'

Dos Santos took to Twitter to refute the claims, launching a salvo of around 30 tweets in Portuguese and English, accusing journalists involved in the investigation of telling "lies".

"My fortune is built on my character, my intelligence, education, capacity for work, perseverance," she wrote.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and educated in Britain, dos Santos -- scornfully nicknamed "the princess" -- was named Africa's first female billionaire in 2013 by Forbes, which estimates her current wealth at $2.1 billion.

Her lawyer dismissed the ICIJ findings as a "highly coordinated attack" orchestrated by Angola's current rulers, in a statement quoted by The Guardian newspaper.

Dos Santos herself told BBC Africa the file dump was part of a "witch hunt" meant to discredit her and her father.

She headed Angola's national oil company Sonangol until her father's successor forced her out after becoming president in 2017.

"Red flags really went up when she was appointed head of the state oil company at a time when her father still had significant influence," said Daniel Bruce, who heads the UK branch of anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International.

Former Angolan president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos ruled for nearly 40 years 

before stepping down in 2017 (AFP Photo/Adalberto ROQUE)

"You could see there were major conflicts of interest starting to emerge," he added.

Dos Santos said on Wednesday that she would consider running for president in the next election in 2022.

Western consultants

The ICIJ investigation said Western consulting firms such as PwC and Boston Consulting Group were "apparently ignoring red flags" while helping her stash away public assets.

"Regulators around the globe have virtually ignored the key role Western professionals play in maintaining an offshore industry that drives money laundering and drains trillions from public coffers," the report said.

Its document trove included redacted letters allegedly showing how consultants sought out ways to open non-transparent bank accounts.

London-based firm PwC was among those advising her businesses.

The consultancy said it had "immediately initiated an investigation" in the wake of the "very serious and concerning allegations."

"We have also taken action to terminate any ongoing work for entities controlled by members of the dos Santos family," it added in a statement.

The Boston Consulting Group did not immediately respond to an attempt to get comment by AFP.

One confidential document allegedly drafted by Boston Consulting in September 2015 outlined a complex scheme for the oil company to move its money offshore.

The investigation also published a similar 99-page presentation from KPMG.

"UK firms... have played a role both in helping her to amass this fortune but also to invest the proceeds of these suspicious deals," said Bruce.

"There are questions to answer," he added. "Particularly for those who helped her acquire property."

Dos Santos and Dokolo have invested in several luxurious London houses and amassed an impressive collection of valuable artwork.

Her husband, a well-known collector of African arts, developed that passion from his billionaire banker father Augustin Dokolo Sanu.

Van Oord involved in Luanda building plan that involved human rights abuses: Trouw

DutchNews, January 20, 2020

Luanda is a mix of new and old. Photo: Depositphotos.com

Dutch dredging group Van Oord may have been involved in human rights abuses and corruption in Angola in connection with the development of an urban development project near the capital Luanda in 2013, Trouw reported on Monday. 

The paper says its own research on the ground and documents leaked to the international investigative journalists’ group ICIJ suggest that some 3,000 families were driven from their homes to make way for the development. 

ING and Atradis, the Dutch government’s credit insurance agency, were also involved with the project, Trouw says. ING lent the equivalent of €360m to the Angolan state and Atradis acted as guarantor. 

Van Oord and ING told Trouw in a reaction that they would now focus on compensating the locals who have been made homeless and that they were completely unaware people had been forcibly moved. 

Trouw says Van Oord worked on the project together with Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the former president of Angola. According to the ICIJ, she has become the richest woman in Africa by exploiting family ties, shell companies and being involved in unscrupulous deals. 

Legal experts told the paper that Dutch companies are often lax in the research they do before getting involved with controversial partners such as Isabel dos Santos, who had been the subject of rumours about possible corruption for years.

Survivors tell of France's 'dirty war' in Cameroon independence

Yahoo – AFP, Reinnier KAZE, December 28, 2019

Survivor: Odile Mbouma says she saw dozens of people slaughtered by French
troops who were hunting for Cameroonian independence fighters (AFP Photo)

Ekité (Cameroon) (AFP) - It was a "dirty war" waged by French colonial troops but it never made headlines and even today goes untold in school history books.

The brutal conflict unfolded in Cameroon, which on January 1 marks its 60th anniversary of independence -- the first of 17 African countries that became free from their colonial masters in 1960.

Many decades on, those who witnessed the violence recall events that shaped countless lives in the central African country yet remain unchronicled today.

"My life was overturned," Odile Mbouma, 72, said in the southwestern town of Ekite.

On the night of December 30, 1956, French troops arrived in the town and slaughtered dozens of people, perhaps as many as a hundred, she said.

"We were sitting under a tree when we suddenly heard the crackle of gunfire," she said. "It was everyone for themselves."

Taking to her heels, the seven-year-old found herself jumping over bodies. "They were everywhere."

The troops were looking for independence fighters -- members of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), a nationalist movement established in 1948 that faced repression first by the French and later by Cameroonian soldiers.

French authorities labelled the UPC "communist" and cracked down from 1955, driving the movement underground, though its charismatic founder Ruben Um Nyobe preached non-violence.

Benoit Bassemel was aged seven when his father was 

killed in the December 31 1956 massacre (AFP Photo)

Buried in cement

In September 1958, Um Nyobe -- nicknamed Mpodol (for "he who brings the word" in the Bassa language) -- was killed by French troops.

"His body was dragged around and displayed so that everybody (saw the corpse) of a man who was considered immortal," said Louis Marie Mang, UPC activist in Eseka, where Um Nyobe is buried in a Protestant graveyard.

"To prevent traditional rites from being held, he was put in a block of cement and buried (without) a coffin."

The conflict continued long beyond independence, for repression of the nationalists continued under Cameroon's first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who also banned public references to the UPC and to Um Nyobe.

The violence "passed unnoticed, wiped from memories," according to Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue and Jacob Tatsitsa, authors of "La guerre du Cameroun" ("Cameroon's War"), published in 2016.

They estimate that between 1955 and 1964, tens of thousands of people, including civilians as well as UPC members, were killed.

In Ekite, a wreath of flowers lies on the soil of a scrubland field at the end of a dirt track. "The Nation will remember your sacrifice," says a memorial notice.

Louis Marie Mang, a UPC activist, stands before the tomb of anti-colonialist leader 

Ruben Um Nyobe (AFP Photo)

"This is one of the mass graves where the nationalists were buried," said Jean-Louis Kell, a UPC militant.

A second ditch was apparent a dozen metres (yards) away, and "a third was discovered not long ago," said Benoit Bassemel. He was seven during the French massacre and has tears in his eyes when he tells how his father was murdered.

'Free like the others'

UPC nationalists believe that the independence granted on January 1, 1960 was not what they fought for.

They view the country's two post-independence presidents, Ahidjo and Paul Biya, who has been in office since 1982, as working hand-in-hand with France.

"We wanted to be free like the other countries. We no longer wanted white people to subjugate us," said 80-year-old Mathieu Njassep, in his tiny family apartment in Petit Paris, a poor district of Douala, the economic capital.

In 1960, aged 21, Njassep joined the Cameroon National Liberation Army (ALNK), the UPC's armed wing.

After two years of fighting, he was appointed secretary to Ernest Ouandie, a leading figure in the movement. He was sentenced to death but escaped the firing squad, unlike Ouandie, who was executed in 1971.

A farewell to arms: Former independence fighter Mathieu Njassep (AFP Photo)

"We had almost nothing to wage a war with," Njassep said.

"We carried out ambushes" with machetes, sticks and homemade guns. "If we had had enough weapons, we would have beaten them."

At the time, the ALNK had established its headquarters in the village of Bandenkop, on the land of the main western tribal group, the Bamileke. Fighting was fierce between the nationalists and the French army.

In the rugged valley from which ALNK commanders led operations, there is no sign of human life today and the only sound is that of a bubbling stream.

"This whole zone was regularly bombed" by the French air force, said Michel Eclador Pekoua, a former UPC official.

Pekoua and other nationalists say French planes dropped napalm. France has neither confirmed nor denied the use of the notorious incendiary weapon.

Decapitations

On a road 30 kilometres (19 miles) to the north, in Bafoussam, a roundabout is known as the "crossroads of the guerrillas," for it was where the decapitated heads of nationalists were placed on show, said Theophile Nono, head of a historical association, Memoire 60.

The regime's methods "ranged from the arrest and arbitrary imprisonment of any Cameroonian suspected of 'rebellion' to systematic torture, with extrajudicial summary executions," Nono said.

A statue of Ruben Um Nyobe has been erected in Eseka to commemorate 

his part in Cameroon's independence (AFP Photo)

For many years the conflict mostly remained taboo in Cameroon. It was in the 1990s, when the authorities came under mounting pressure for democratic change, that people began to raise the historic past.

Biya, in a speech in 2010, paid tribute to "people who dreamed of (independence), fought to obtain it and sacrificed their lives for it... Our people should be eternally grateful to them."

After years of French silence, then president Francois Hollande in 2015 became his country's first head of state to speak of "a repression" of Cameroonian nationalists leading to "tragic episodes".

For many survivors, this is not enough.

"France must accept its responsibility," Nono said.

"It must undertake to compensate victims of the dirty war, which has been carefully concealed by both the French side and the Cameroonian side."

Chagos islands: The fight over Africa’s last British colony

DW, 22 November 2019

A piece of Britain lies between Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. To date the Chagos Islands are still under British control and their inhabitants live in exile. But the UK has missed a deadline to return them.

   

The anger in his voice is clearly audible. There is a lack of goodwill on the side of the British government, Olivier Bancoult says. The fight over the Chagos archipelago has been dragging on for too long. "We are continuing to put pressure [on the British government]," Bancoult told DW. As a young boy, Bancoult was one of the Chagos residents who were forced to resettle. Today he lives in Mauritius and as a lawyer has been fighting for the people of Chagos and their descendants to return to the islands. On Friday, November 22, the United Nations deadline for the return of the islands to its people. Bancoult is amongst the organizers of a demonstration outside the British High Commission in Mauritius.

Mauritius, which had once been part of the same colonial territory as the Chagos islands, gained its independence in 1968. Between 1968 and 1973, up to 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago were forced to move to Mauritius, the Seychelles and UK in order to establish a military base on the main island, Diego Garcia. In the meantime, the UK has leased it to the US until 2036. Chagos served as a military base for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The largest island, Diego Garcis, serves as a US military base

Geostrategic importance

"We were poor people who are living in peace and harmony until they made the decision to giv one of the largest islands to America to make a military base. Since that time our nightmare started. Many of us were forcibly removed from our native land to live in Mauritius and the Seychelles," Bancoult told DW. In February the International Court of Justice in The Hague, ruled that the archipelago is legally a part of Mauritius. The court said that Britain had illegally separated the islands from Mauritius and should give them back.

The British government rejected the ruling. "The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814," read a statement by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The statement, however, alleged that Britain had pledged  to hand over the islands to Mauritius when they are no longer needed for defense purposes.

In May, the UN General Assembly also called on the UK to handover the islands. The deadline for the handover expired on November 22, but the resolution is not binding and the UK seems to have no intention to make such a move in the near future.

The strategic location and the military role of the island, make the very calls for its independence very difficult.  Philippe Sands, a British lawyer who advises the Mauritian government on the Chagos matter, believes that talks between the UK, the US and Mauritius will continue to take place. "Mauritius has indicated that the military base could even remain on the island," Sands told DW.

Read more: The Commonwealth: Still relevant for Africa today?

The archipelago belings to the same island group as Mauritius which
gained independence from Britain in 1968

Clinging onto the last African colony

Sands believes that Britain's reluctance to bow to international pressure lies in the fact that it is still coming to terms with its new place in world politics. "[The UK] is a diminished power. It has lost its judge at the International Court of Justice, it has lost a series of resolutions at the UN General Assembly. I think its just taking time to come to the realization, that ist legal situation and is very different, but ultimately I think the UK will comply with the court," Sands said.

The UK, Sands explained, is paying a high price for its political losses. "They're in the process of leaving the European Union, and they have to negotiate new trade agreements and political agreements with several countries. The government is in real trouble and I think that is why it is clinging on to its last colony in Africa," Sands said.  For him, keeping the islands under British control amounts to a crime against the people of Chagos.

Chagossians celebrate the news of the UN resolution calling on the
UK give up control of the islands (February 2019)

Hopes set on upcoming UK elections

According to Sands, the UN is already preparing new maps which show the Chagos islands as part of Mauritius. Additionally Mauritius is the only country that can have legal rights to fishing and overflying rights of the area.

Sands and Bancoult have the hope that the upcoming UK elections set for December 12 could make a difference. "The Labour party has promised to respect the ruling of the International Court of Justice," Sands said. "If the next government is under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn that would be very good,” Bancoult said. "He already supports us."

According to Bancoult, 596 Chagossians who were forced to leave the islands are still alive today. All in all, he said, they have 9.800 descendants who identify as Chagossians. Bancoult himself finds the thought of growing old away from his homeland difficult. "Most old people want to die where they were born," he said.

Triggered by MP's disgrace, Tunisia's #MeToo breaks taboos

France24 – AFP, 10 November 2019

Tunis (AFP) - Viral images of a Tunisian lawmaker allegedly masturbating outside a high school have sparked the country's own #MeToo moment, with sex abuse victims breaking taboos under the hashtag #EnaZeda.

Discussion of sexual harassment had previously been limited to a few edgy TV shows, but now thousands of women in the North African nation are sharing their experiences from lecherous remarks to paedophilia.

A video showing the moustachioed politician sitting in a car with his trousers dropped to his knees was shot last month by a student who shared it online alongside accusations of harassment.

The newly elected lawmaker denies inappropriate conduct and has said he was urinating due to a medical condition -- even threatening his accuser when pursued by prosecutors.

#EnaZeda -- Tunisian Arabic for #MeToo -- was inspired by the huge global movement that bloomed in 2017 in the wake of sexual assault allegations by multiple women against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

It has given some in Tunisia the confidence to confront their harassers face-to-face.

"Tonight, I have cried all the tears from my body. Tonight, I was harassed and nobody took the trouble to react," wrote one internet user Lina Kaboudi.

But "unlike all the other nights, I dared to respond to the perpetrator. I did not keep walking, pretending I had not heard.

"I stopped, and I held him to account".

Breaking taboos

Tunisia is considered a pioneer on women's rights in the Arab world and was the first predominantly Muslim country to abolish polygamy in 1956.

But the taboo on confronting sexual misconduct remains strong, especially within the family.

It is rare for victims to pursue formal complaints, despite sexual harassment in public places being punishable by a one-year prison term and a fine of 3,000 dinar (around 1,000 euros) since July 2017.

To catalogue the avalanche of testimony, Tunisian activists have set up private Facebook groups including one simply named #EnaZeda, which has more than 20,000 members.

Poignant accounts, some anonymous, are shared daily in the group -- ranging from rape and incest to inappropriate behaviour by teachers or celebrities and molestation on public transport.

Activists say they have been surprised by the volume and variety of the stories, and NGO Aswat Nissa (Voice of Women) says it has collected more than 70,000 testimonies.

"Then women, and sometimes men too, shared their stories, so now we are trying to organise workshops with psychologists."

Bouattour said she has received messages from parents who have "broken the family taboo by talking about sexual harassment with their children, after reading testimonies about paedophilia".

'Didn't lift a finger'

Traditional attitudes and apathy among some in power mean the nascent #EnaZeda initiative faces an uphill battle.

Kaboudi -- the woman who called out street harassment -- laments the passivity of the police, who "were a few feet away" and did not "lift a little finger" to help her when she was harassed.

She also despairs of witnesses who similarly "did nothing".

In an attempt to break the silence, in October the Centre for Research, Study, Documentation and Information on Women (Credif) launched an awareness campaign about sexual harassment on public transport.

Dubbed "the harasser #MaYerkebch (does not ride) with us", the initiative includes an app that uses a chat bot to speak to a harasser on behalf of a victim of witness and remind them of the law.

Najla Allani, director of Credif, told AFP the app states out loud the type of sexual misdemeanour and location, in a voice that speaks firmly in local dialect to "intimidate and scare the harasser".

"People dare not speak (themselves) out of fear, but with this voice app, they will be better able to react", Allani said.

An evaluation of the experimental initiative later this month will decide if it continues, so long as "the financial means allow it", she added.

It remains to be seen how big a contribution #EnaZeda will make to Tunisia's battle against sexual harassment, but one thing is sure -- the shroud of silence is no longer so suffocating.

Related Article:

Nigerian sex slavery trial opens in France